Learning Spatial Localization: From Rat Studies to Computational Models of the Hippocampus

In his landmark article, Richard Morris (1981) introduced a set of rat experiments intended “to demonstrate that rats can rapidly learn to locate an object that they can never see, hear, or smell provided it remains in a fixed spatial location relative to distal room cues” (p. 239). These experimental studies have greatly impacted our understanding of rat spatial cognition. In this article, we address a spatial cognition model primarily based on hippocampus place cell computation where we extend the prior Barrera–Weitzenfeld model (2008) intended to allow navigation in mazes containing corridors. The current work extends beyond the limitations of corridors to enable navigation in open arenas where a rat may move in any direction at any time. The extended work reproduces Morris's rat experiments through virtual rats that search for a hidden platform using visual cues in a circular open maze analogous to the Morris water maze experiments. We show results with virtual rats comparing them to Morris's original studies with rats.     

We think we know where we are,but can anyone tell us where we are going? Has the European Union lost its way?

Using the various problems and delays in the Galileo satellite navigation programme as a metaphor for European leaders' incompetence and complacency in a wide range of other important fields, this viewpoint bemoans the lack of direction in both the European project and its space policy, the result of growing state nationalism and a neoliberal approach that has left the continent at the mercy of globalisation.     

Role of the current young generation within the space exploration sector

The space sector gathers together people from a variety of fields who work in the industry on different levels and with different expertise. What is often forgotten is the impact and role of the current young generation. Their engagement is of great importance as undeniably today's young ‘space generation’ will be defining the direction of future space exploration.Today's vision of future human and robotic space exploration has been set out in the Global Exploration Roadmap (GER). This focuses on sustainable, affordable and productive long-term goals. The strategy begins with the International Space Station (ISS) and then expands human presence into the solar system, including a human mission to Mars.This paper presents a general overview of the role of today's youth within the space exploration sector and the challenges to overcome. To complete this perspective, we present results from a survey made among students and young professionals about their levels of awareness of the GER. The respondents presented their opinion about current aspects of the GER and prioritised the GER's objectives. It is hoped that the paper will bring a new perspective into the GER and a contribution to the current GER strategy.     

基于紫外敏感器的航天器自主导航

对基于紫外敏感器的卫星自主导航方法进行了研究 ,给出了自主轨道确定的滤波算法。对基于紫外敏感器的导航在地球中低轨道、大椭圆轨道和同步轨道上的应用进行了数学仿真验证。仿真结果表明 ,导航误差主要取决于地心方向的测量误差 ,而地心距测量误差的影响要小得多。在已知卫星惯性姿态的条件下 ,仅以地心方向为观测量 ,滤波器同样能够收敛 ,并能获得较高的定轨精度。     

The European contribution to a global civil navigation satellite system

Space technology revolutionizes navigation. It will become the method for any task of position, velocity, range determination and time distribution. The existing navigation satellite systems of the USA (GPS) and of Russia (GLONASS) are military systems. They only partly meet the requirements of civil safety critical applications. A global civil navigation satellite system (GNSS) is required. The European Union (EU) has recognized the importance of satellite based navigation and its role for transportation in general and for the development of the Trans-European Network (TEN) in particular. It has therefore decided to become a major partner in the development of the GNSS. In this article a concept is proposed which starts with a European regional segment (ENSS) as an element for the integrated global system. This concept requires the establishment of international standards to enable seamless global service. It has the advantage of meeting both the particular demands of regions and civil user groups.     

The Chinese GNSS—System development and policy analysis

As the most successful dual-use technology at present the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) also has extensive recognition in China. China began developing navigation satellites in 1967 and now has 45 years' experience in the field. 2012 was a crucial year for China's GNSS: the first-stage project of the second-generation global navigation satellite system was rounded off, and it entered service for regional area navigation and positioning. This paper discusses the development history of China's satellite navigation, analyzes the background to China's decision to develop an independent GNSS and investigates the formation of its three-step development strategy. It reviews the system construction and industrial policy of the BeiDou system and the actions taken by various government departments at different times.     

多重闪烁干扰下高精度卫星导航算法研究

传统卫星导航抗干扰高精度算法只适用于处理平稳的干扰信号,难以适应无序脉冲组成的多重闪烁干扰环境。本文基于干扰协方差矩阵重建思想,提出一种新的适用于多重闪烁干扰环境下的卫星导航高精度抗干扰算法并进行仿真对比分析。通过压缩感知完成单采样点干扰测向,使用干扰噪声矩阵重建理论构造协方差矩阵,使用自适应波束约束算法实现单采样点天线阵列波束赋形,最终实现在干扰方向形成固定零陷,在卫星方向形成波束指向。与传统波束约束高精度抗干扰算法相比,该算法可以实现单采样点抗干扰权值计算,适用于快时变多重闪烁干扰环境。仿真结果证明：该算法可以在有效滤除多重闪烁干扰信号的同时在卫星导航信号方向维持波束指向,保障卫星导航信号观测精度,满足高精度卫星导航需求。     

Navigation in outdoor environments as an embodied,social, cultural,and situated experience: An empirical study of orienteering

This study investigated novices' “lived experiences” of navigation within the sport of orienteering from an enactive and phenomenological approach. The objective was to qualitatively characterize elements of task-related situations that were meaningful for orienteers. The results showed that the participants continuously made judgments about the reliability of their estimations about whether they were on “the right route” on the course. When the participants judged that they were only approximately on the right route or were unable to locate themselves, elements of the situation other than map and terrain features became meaningful for them. These results demonstrate that, for novice orienteers, navigation activity must extend beyond navigation as a logical, computational way-finding problem to include embodied, social, cultural and situated dimensions.     

Development of Landmark Knowledge at Decision Points

Two experiments investigated how people develop different landmark knowledge at decision points. Participants learned a route in a virtual city once or five times. One distinctive landmark was placed at each intersection of the route. At test, participants were released at each intersection according to the learning order and were required to determine the turning direction. At each intersection, the landmark was removed (no landmark), correctly placed (one landmark), duplicated on the other side (two identical landmarks), or misplaced from another intersection (two different landmarks) to disrupt the landmark sequence. The results suggested that humans develop different landmark knowledge (landmark knowledge for guidance, landmark knowledge for place recognition and knowledge of landmark sequence) with different navigation experience.     

基于偏振光及重力的辅助定姿方法研究

提出了一种以太阳方向矢量为基准的偏振光导航方法,该方法利用太阳方向矢量物理意义明确的特点,消除了直接利用偏振光进行导航定向时存在的180°模糊性问题。为完全观测载体姿态,同时引入了重力观测量,提出了利用偏振光及重力矢量联合辅助定姿的方法,并详细推导了该方法的观测方程,同时给出了当姿态误差较小时,观测方程的简化线性形式。利用该姿态观测方程,设计了基于偏振光及重力辅助定姿的偏振光/GPS/SINS组合导航算法。理论分析及仿真表明,通过引入偏振光及重力矢量进行辅助定姿,导航系统可以直接观测载体的平台姿态误差,进而增强了系统对载体姿态的估计性能,且使得组合导航系统可以完成大初始姿态误差时的导航任务。     

一种同轨区域集中的北斗卫星自主导航算法

基于北斗三号卫星配置规划,提出了一种同轨区域集中的北斗卫星自主导航算法。利用Ka星间链路指向切换灵活特性与激光链路高速通信特性,并克服激光终端异轨面通信困难,指向切换不便等缺陷,算法设计将轨道面内各卫星采集的Ka双向测距信息利用激光星间链路传入轨道面主卫星中,从而将测距信息集中处理并完成轨道面内各卫星的轨道信息更新。并且,本文还搭建了星内模拟仿真环境,对算法精度及性能进行验证。仿真结果表明,同轨道区域集中自主导航算法可在星内仿真环境中稳定运行,且其导航精度远优于分布式自主导航精度。     

Wayfinding Through Orientation

Dominant approaches in computer-assisted wayfinding support adhere to the deeply problematic principles of turn-by-turn navigation. In this article, we suggest a new approach called “Wayfinding Through Orientation,” which supports the acquisition of spatial knowledge and cognitive mapping for advancing the user’s spatial orientation. Being oriented on one’s way is a prerequisite to enabling people to verify instructions and to incorporate new spatial information into their existing knowledge structure. In three studies described in this article we first present empirical evidence that people can be supported in survey knowledge acquisition through suitable wayfinding instructions. Consequently, we explore orientation information in human wayfinding instructions. Finally, we outline how orientation information can be communicated within a prototypically implemented navigation assistance system.     

一种天文导航信息导引的星间链路自主定轨算法

针对星间链路自主定轨算法稳定性差,故障无法自主恢复等缺点,提出了一种天文导航信息导引算法,以提升星间链路自主定轨算法的稳定运行能力。算法利用天文导航极高的稳定性与完全自主性,确定星间链路建链指向,以保证星间稳定建链。并且,算法在天文导航中加入强跟踪滤波环节,使在轨道信息出现偏差以致星间链路中断时,具备快速的自主轨道确定及建链恢复能力。经仿真测试表明,卫星平稳运行时,利用本文算法,星间链路仰角及方位角指向误差均小于0.1°。而在轨道机动产生链路中断后,算法可使卫星快速恢复链路建链。仿真测试验证了天文导航信息导引算法的有效性。     

星光折射导航星的改进三角识别捕获

高精度星光折射间接敏感地平的自主导航方法,目前被国内外尤为关注。本文通过对星光折射导航观测对象———导航星捕获的研究,采用了改进的三角匹配算法并结合恒星星表,确定出导航观测星星光方向,同时依据对飞行器在轨观测星的几何关系推导,利用Unscented卡尔曼滤波算法确定航天器的在轨位置和速度。该方法能比较真实地模拟飞行器实际在轨的导航情况。仿真表明,真实星表导航精度大于人造星场;通过比较导航系统捕获20,40,60,80颗折射星的4种情况,可知捕获到的导航星的数量越多,导航精度也随之提高。     

Lunar lander's three-dimensional translation and yaw rotation motion estimation during a descent phase using optical navigation

Optical navigation for a lunar lander consists of estimating a lander's 3-dimensional (3-D) relative dynamic motion with respect to a preselected landing site using a passive 2-dimensional (2-D) video image sequence. Lunar landing missions require a lander to perform an autonomous accurate landing with simple mechanical structure, easy operation and low cost. These requirements have motivated the need to develop an advanced navigation system. Existing navigation systems trade-off simplicity, accuracy and cost. High accuracy navigation systems typically imply complexity and high cost. In this paper, we consider a scenario where the descending phase starts from an initial altitude of 10 km with a time-of-descent of 100 s. The navigation camera is an off-the-shelf optical instrument used to take the video image sequence of the landing site during the landing phase. It is fed into the motion estimation algorithm to be processed. The continuous wavelet transform (CWT) is used to analyse each image frame of the input digital video image sequence. The output is a 2-D video image motion trajectory map, which represents the projection motion of the landing site. The 2-D video image motion is projected back to the 3-D lander's relative motion based on a geometric analysis. The outputs of this estimation algorithm are the 3-D attitude motion parameters of the lander at a time corresponding to an image being taken. The attitude determination and control system (ADCS) of the lander uses these data to perform the lander's attitude control task. In this article, we provide the motion modelling for a lunar lander during the descending phase. The projection of a 3-D planar to 2-D image plane is analysed which build the correspondence between the 3-D lander's motion and the 2-D image motion. This link provides the evidence for the geometry analysis. CWT is reviewed and CWT for video image sequence analysis is also introduced. Numerical simulation of the estimated 2-D video image sequence under the lander performing a 3-D translation and yaw rotation during the terminal descent are shown to verify the proposed concepts. The analysis of the results show that the proposed method achieves highly accurate 2-D video image motion estimation of less then 1% error with significant savings of cost, mass and volume. It leads to the accurate estimation of the lander's 3-D relative motion with respect to the landing site.     

一种GPS抗干扰及干扰DOA估计工程集成方法

卫星导航干扰对消技术和干扰测向技术是卫星导航干扰对抗的两个典型方向,并逐渐成为当前卫星导航抗干扰装备的标配功能。如何实现干扰对消和干扰测向的高效集成成为制约工程实现的主要瓶颈之一。提出一种GPS抗干扰及DOA估计的工程集成方法,通过优化噪声子空间估计工程实现,实现了高性能抗干扰和高精度干扰测向的高效集成,与抗干扰模块和干扰测向模块相比,集成模块极大降低了工程实现资源。测试结果表明该方法可以有效对抗干信比60dB的干扰,并提供2度的测向精度。     

GPS based onboard and onground orbit operations for small satellites

In extension to common applications such as groundtrack displays and antenna steering, the SGP4 orbit model is proposed for operational orbit determination in small satellite missions. SGP4 is an analytical orbit model for Low-Earth orbiting satellites that is widely used for the propagation of NORAD twoline elements. Twoline elements may hence be generated completely independent of NORAD. Their use as exclusive source of orbital information simplifies the operations concept and reduces mission costs through the extensive use of existing low-cost mission support software. Due to small computer resource requirements of 8–10kByte, the SGP4 model may also be applied for onboard orbit computations making use of e.g. a 80186 processor, thus ensuring full compatibility of ground-based and onboard operations. The proposed approach is particularly suited in combination with a space-borne GPS receiver, were the C/A-code navigation solutions are treated as measurements that are adjusted in a least-squares sense using the SGP4 model. As consequence, inherent drawbacks of the pure navigation solutions such as data gaps and scatter as well as limited velocity accuracy are avoided, while the operational navigation activities are kept at a minimum. The feasibility of the concept is illustrated based on real GPS navigation data from the TOPEX/Poseidon and the MIR space station with an inherent data quality of 50–100 m. It is shown that 3 hours of data within a 4 day period are sufficient to keep the position error within 4 km, that is considered sufficient for most applications.